UAE | Crime

Unwed mother buried baby at Dubai beach

Filipina claims baby died because she could not afford high medical expenses

By Bassam Za’za’, Legal and Court Correspondent

Published: 21:00 April 8, 2013

Dubai: An unwed mother has claimed that her baby died a day after delivery because she could not afford high medical expenses.

“After I gave birth to a premature baby girl on January 1, she fell ill on January 2. My boyfriend and I took her to a hospital. We were told that it will cost them Dh26,000 for a proper medical care of the baby. We didn’t have the money and couldn’t afford it. The baby died shortly after that,” the 30-year-old Filipina, J.A., told the Dubai Court of First Instance in a written defence letter on Monday.

J.A., who worked as a cleaner at the Union Coop, confessed that she had sex out of wedlock that resulted in her getting pregnant when she pleaded guilty before Presiding Judge Ali Attiyah Saad.

J.A.’s boyfriend, R.B., a Filipino, remains at large.

The defendant admitted that she endangered the life of her premature baby (30-32 weeks old) when she failed to provide her with proper medical care.

J.A. also confessed that she and R.B. buried the body of the baby at the Jumairah Open Beach.

In her written defence, the mother asked the judge to take her condition into consideration and grant her a lenient punishment.

She contended that she did not have any intention to lose her baby.

“We could not afford Dh26,000 required for the care of the baby. When she died, R.B. insisted that we bury her at the beachside. So we put her corpse in a wooden box and went to the beachside by taxi. Then he buried her,” said the Filipina.

The defendant’s Filipina coworker, D.S., testified that J.A. informed her that she was carrying R.B.’s baby in December.

“I knew that they were having an affair. On January 1, J.A. told me that she has bought the required medicines, and delivered on her own at home. When I saw the baby, she was covered with blood, undressed and unfed. I told her to take the baby to hospital. Then she left the Coop’s residence and went to stay with R.B. She phoned me the next day and was crying when she informed me that her daughter has died after she bled from her nose. When she returned to our residence on January 7, she informed me that they buried the girl in Jumairah,” D.S. told the prosecutors.

The residence’s Emirati supervisor testified that when “I confronted J.A., she told me that they didn’t have enough money for medication of the baby”.

Records said the baby died at 7am and the suspects buried her at 7pm.

A Pakistani policeman testified that a lifeguard picked up the baby’s body from the seawater around 11.30am on January 11.